Sea Shepherd’s Drone Force Captures Images of Wasteful Dumping of Meat from these Rare Whales; Proves the Whalers Do Not Need to Continue Killing Cetaceans for Food

Discarded remnants of the bottlenose whale butcheringOn the heels of yesterday’s horrific butchering of five rather rare Northern bottlenose whales who had beached themselves in the Faroe Islands, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has discovered that a good portion of flesh from these whales — meat that the Faroese whalers claim they eat — was today dumped back into the ocean for no apparent reason.

Upon learning that the whale meat was being dumped off a remote cliff, Sea Shepherd onshore volunteers sent up a drone to capture images and footage of the remains of these once living, sentient whales now reduced to a pile of flesh floating on the surface of the sea. Near the squarely butchered sheets of blubber floating in the water, a large fin sliced from one of the whales could be seen. As the team documented their find, a Faroese individual approached and dumped more meat over the cliff, and several additional people came by as well, only to immediately turn around and leave so as not to risk having their photo taken by Sea Shepherd while in the act of dumping their whale meat.

“There are only an estimated 10,000 Northern bottlenose whales left swimming the sea. It was tragic enough for five of them to strand, but they were unlucky enough to strand on the shores of the Ferocious Isles — where instead of any attempt at rescue, they were quickly slaughtered, butchered and their flesh thrown away as though mere garbage,” said Sea Shepherd Founder, Captain Paul Watson.

“Once again, the whale killers show a complete disregard for the lives of these majestic creatures. If they needed whale meat to survive, as they claim in their arguments for the brutal mass slaughter they call the “grind,” this meat would not have been discarded into the sea,” added Captain Watson.

The five bottlenose whales were found by fisherman early Thursday morning, stranded on the killing beach at Hvalba on the Faroese Island of Suduroy. Rather than make any attempt to save the pod, knife-wielding Faroese whale killers slaughtered and butchered the defenseless, stranded whales. Though Sea Shepherd volunteers were blocked from approaching the scene, they were able to document as the whales were butchered and their meat transported. According to reports, the whales were still alive when they were found, as the whalers severed the whales’ spinal cords to kill them before they were towed for butchering. The same method is used to kill pilot whales and other species in the Faroese grind hunts.

Faroese regulations allow for the killing of beached bottlenose whales only if they cannot be rescued and driven back out to sea. Sea Shepherd is consulting with an attorney and police to determine if the whalers have violated these regulations. It is unknown whether the whales could have been saved, but it appears that there were no attempts to try to do so.

Sea Shepherd condemns this heinous waste of life, as well as the “grindadrap” mass slaughter of pilot whales and dolphins. Sea Shepherd is calling on the Faroe Islands to end its outdated and cruel massacre of cetaceans.

Sea Shepherd has led the opposition against the slaughter of cetaceans in the Faroe Islands since the 1980s, and today our goal remains the same: to bring the archaic grind to a complete stop. Launched in June, Operation GrindStop 2014, is Sea Shepherd’s largest Faroe Islands campaign to date. The multi-national land- and sea-based campaign features hundreds of volunteers who will be present in the Faroe Islands over the course of four months to defend pilot whales and other species of small cetaceans from the brutal and archaic mass slaughter known as “grindadrap” or the “grind.” To date, no grinds have taken place while Sea Shepherd has patrolled the islands. Should a grind commence at any time during the campaign, Sea Shepherd volunteers are prepared to intervene to save our clients.

CALL TO ACTION: Sea Shepherd is seeking additional volunteers to join the team in the Faroe Islands for the last month of campaign. The deadline for campaign applications is September 10th at 5 pm EST. Anyone interested in volunteering should complete and submit the application found at this link: https://snab.wufoo.com/forms/grindstop-2014-onshore-crew-application/.